Chapter Fifty-two: Yu Lin

  Li Sansheng spent all his summer vacation from late June to early September in northern Shaanxi. He stayed in Yan'an for about half a month, and the rest of the time was mostly spent in Yulin. During this period, he took a trip to Inner Mongolia and stopped in Ordos and Wuhai for a few days. In nearly three months, Li Sansheng had traveled extensively throughout this region. If you want to find the place with the greatest wealth gap in China, it is here. Except that many locals do not know that Yulin has a North Yulin and South Yulin, just like Jiangsu Province has a south of the Yangtze River called Sunan and a north of the Yangtze River called Subei, where Subei is poor and Sunan is rich, with similar political capital.

  Yulin is also the case, northern Yulin is rich and oily, southern Yulin is poor and crumbling. However, this place known as China's Kuwait has one of the world's seven major coal fields, the Shenfu Coal Field, and the largest onshore gas field in China. What it lacks most is not money; without hundreds of millions of capital, don't even mention having money on this land.

  Where there's money, there's benefit, and where there's benefit, there's mutual deception and intrigue. This is an indisputable fact. From Er Long's words, Li San Sheng can be certain that in Guanzhong, a powerful force with a strong background has been waiting for many years to enter this place full of people's money. As for the specific reason, although Li San Sheng isn't entirely clear, he can basically guess it's not far off.

  For Er Long to have walked this path for so many years, Li San Sheng has never expressed any opinion. Not everyone can move forward step by step according to their own plan. If the dog day's fate hadn't teased Er Long, perhaps he would now be a so-called successful person with family power and background, having a lot of money, and having beautiful younger sisters who would throw themselves at him like moths to flames. However, fate and life will never have ifs, this is not a sentence that can be deleted or revised, it's destiny, determined from the moment you're born.

  Two dragons went to Yulin, and Jade returned to Nanjing. Now Li San Sheng has truly become a lonely person. Those people now know that Third Brother is back again. DaDa and Green Frog, the two most rascal guys among them, are roaming around Zhejiang University, bullying the country's flowers and grasses. On QQ, they even tease Li San Sheng, who laughs and scolds them, saying "You two will definitely have no anus when you give birth to children in the future!" The two guys simultaneously raise their middle fingers and curse, "Your sister!"

  After parting with Er Long in Xiao Zhai, Li San Sheng instructed Er Long that after arriving in Yu Lin, he should be unfamiliar with the place, listen more and do less, and not rush to take charge when something happens. If someone else takes the lead, don't overstep your bounds. If you can add a finishing touch, then do so. If something really happens, call back at that time. San Ge has been wandering around Shaanbei for three months, but it wasn't a wasted trip. Er Long nodded with a silly smile, firmly believing that this world had wronged and deceived him, but San Ge and that blind man would never do such things. Now only San Ge is left.

  At night, after returning to the dormitory, Li San Sheng was naturally subjected to severe torture by several guys in the dormitory. After being amazed by Yu Er, several guys became more and more curious about Li San Sheng, but none of them dared to attack Yu Er recklessly. This person always knew how to behave and be content with what he had.

  Li Sansheng still claimed that she was his cousin, but now no one believed him. Everyone had a knowing expression on their face. Li Sansheng didn't bother to explain and instead opened his computer to visit a website often visited by insiders of the People's Congress, where he downloaded several articles about real estate bubbles and the devaluation of the RMB. He glanced at them and found many big shots' footprints, which made Li Sansheng worship for half a day.

  On the way back, I bought several literary masterpieces by Shaanxi authors from Hantang Book City. Shaanxi authors hold a significant position in China's contemporary literary scene. A large number of literary giants such as Jia Pingwa, Chen Zhongshi, and Lu Yao have had a profound impact on Chinese contemporary literature. I remember when Jia Pingwa's new book "Ancient Furnace" was first released nationwide at the Century Golden Flower, Li Sanxing went there despite the rain. However, Li Sanxing's favorite Shaanxi author is not well-known nationwide but has excellent works - Zhao Xi. Li Sanxing truly respects this elderly man who abandoned his political career and devoted himself to literature. It's worth noting that when Zhao Xi gave up politics for literature, he was already a county committee secretary, and his character and work style were appreciated by the then Shaanxi Provincial Committee Secretary, who planned to appoint him as the vice mayor of Yulin, where Zhao Xi had worked during the Cultural Revolution and befriended many literary giants, including Lu Yao. However, Zhao Xi resolutely abandoned politics for literature, which was lamented by many at that time. Perhaps such a thing could only happen in that era among those people.

  Li Sansheng bought a novella "The Soul of the Great Wall" by Teacher Zhao Xi, a novel "Nü Er He" and also brought back a book "A Man in Love" by German writer Martin Walser from Hantang Book City. On his way back to the dormitory, he was ridiculed by Lu Guangzhong and others for quite some time.

  Registered a horse account on the old Meng Ge's website, named Wuling Xianyun, took some bricks, was taken some bricks, read a few random meows that were quite good, then checked the dynamics of Yulin Ordos National Energy Base, suddenly remembered that Lu Guangzhong is not from Yulin, sighed at myself for having a local snake that didn't work, and randomly seeking medical treatment.

  "Lao Lu, your Shenmu has made headlines again. In less than a day, the county government has collected over 2 billion yuan in donations?" Li Sansheng poured himself a cup of night tea he had obtained from Zhao Ayi, filling up an entire can. Anyway, Zhao Ayi wasn't particularly fond of drinking tea unless it was brewed by him personally.

  "Right, you guys from Shenmu have been in the spotlight lately, the old secretary was forced to step down, and then suddenly over 2 billion yuan in donations were raised. I feel like there's a sense of 'killing the donkey after it has finished grinding the mill' going on, isn't that right, Old Four?" Ye Yongsong is from Wuhai, Inner Mongolia, close to Shenmu, also a resource-rich city. With all the news about Yulin in recent days, he chimed in with a joke.

  Lu Guangzhong watched the video of Zhen San's "You're the biggest" while listening to the indecent commentary, and turned his head with disdain, raising his middle finger and cursing: "Who let us people from Yu Lin have money? In our Yu Lin, if you drive a car worth less than 500,000 yuan, others will look down on you. Even the vegetable vendors there drive cars worth over 500,000 yuan."

  "Alright, I admit that you people from Yulin have money. During the Wenchuan earthquake, I didn't see you donate much either. Still, it's Big Brother Qiao who gets straight to the point and exposes Lu Guangzhong without hesitation. Li Sansheng and Ye Yansong are all impressed. Lu Guangzhong has nothing to say now."

  "Alright, Old Lu asked you something serious." Li San Sheng smiled and didn't bother with these fools anymore, planning to get some real information from Lu Guangzhong.

  "Go ahead and ask, as long as you don't ask me how old my second child is or what my mother's surname is. Even if you ask about my wife's sensitive spots, I'll tell you," Lu Guangzhong said with a sly smile.

  "Get out!" Li Sansheng cursed without hesitation, Lu Guangzhong happily tore open the package of Chinese cigarettes and threw one to each person in the dormitory.

  "Ask whatever you want." Lu Guangzhong turned his head and closed the video, looking at Li Sansheng seriously.

  "You're from Yulin, I think you should know what the underground forces are like over there?" Li Sansheng thought for a moment and got straight to the point.

  Lu Guangzhong was taken aback by Li Sansheng's words, looked up and glanced at Li Sansheng in the smoke, his eyes slightly suspicious, and suddenly lowered his voice to ask "Old Fourth, why are you asking this?"

  "A friend of mine was active over there recently. I'm somewhat familiar with Shenmu Prefecture's Jingbian County, but not very clear about Nan Yu Lin?" Li Sansheng said straightforwardly.

  "Oh, basically, it can be said that the northern part of Yulin has many mines involved in underworld activities, while the southern part is the opposite - those with underworld connections have mines. The north has more mines, so the forces are more complex, while the south has fewer mines but a more unified grasp, making it harder to infiltrate. However, the most capable ones are still those big shots, NPC deputies and CPPCC members - everyone knows and understands who's in charge. In short, Yulin as a whole is complex but exclusive, and everyone knows how to take care of their own business on their own turf. Outsiders coming in just want to get a share of the pie, and no one wants that."

  Lu Guangzhong said while smoking, "Most people know about the general situation in Yulin - every coal boss has money, mines, people, and connections. Who doesn't have a few desperate guys on their mine? Those people are so poor they're scared to death, but as long as you have money, nothing is off-limits. After doing something, they can hide out for ten days or several months in the mine, and no one can find them."

  "Ah, indeed, I spent some time there during the summer vacation, it seems that when it comes to saying which place in Shaanxi has the best law and order, it's still Yan'an. Li San Sheng let out a bitter laugh, what is Yan'an? It's a revolutionary holy land! Out of the 13 standing committee members in Shaanxi, two are from Yan'an, one is the secretary of the Yan'an municipal party committee, and the other is the principal of the China Yan'an Cadre Academy. Every day, there are countless domestic and foreign dignitaries coming here, especially all sorts of educational bases, cadre academies...and recently, the secretary of the Yan'an municipal party committee was directly promoted to vice mayor of Shanghai, which shocked everyone, this step is too big, leaving people speechless."

  "Rubbish!" Lu Guangzhong despised, "However, on the other side, the most powerful ones are still state-owned enterprises, CNPC, Sinopec, Changqing Oilfield, Yanchang Petroleum, Yunlian, Shenhua. Which one is not a heavyweight in the state-owned enterprise? Who dares to provoke them?"

  "Haha, I knew that. More than half of the county towns in Jingbian are actually part of Changqing Oilfield," Li Sansheng said with a chuckle.

  "They were actually a bunch of poor lunatics over a decade ago. Back in '99, people would spend tens of thousands of yuan on coal mines, whoever had the mine was an idiot. Not like now." His dad told him all this, at that time his dad had to sleep inside train cars for over two months because he was too afraid to come out while trying to collect debts, the debt collectors even smashed their house. Unlike now, although not as powerful as Lülin's richest man Old Gao who has twelve large high-quality coal mines, they also have three or four decent mines in hand.

  Li Sansheng asked a few more specific questions, then started chatting with his friends on QQ and suddenly saw an avatar that had never lit up before, and he was stunned.

  Lao Meng sent a message, Li Sansheng opened it, and tomorrow is Huahua's memorial day.